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T10 League: Gladiators beat Delhi Bulls to reach final
A great team effort helped the Deccan Gladiators to beat Delhi Bulls by 15 runs and they have now qualified for the final match.
Deccan Gladiators 10 overs 139-4
Russell 39 (14) Drakes 3-15 Wiese 31*(15) Smith 30*(11)
Delhi Bulls 10 overs 122-5
Morgan 27 (8) Hasaranga 1-20 Hemraj 24 (8) O.Smith 1-21 Rutherford 21 (14) Mills 1-21
Delhi Bulls won the toss and elected to field first but that didn’t go well for them as they failed to chase the target of 140 runs set by the Deccan Gladiators batters.
The Gladiators surprisingly sent Russell to open the innings with Cadmore.
Russell was not in a great touch with the bat in this league but today he smashed 39 runs off just 14 balls including 3 big sixes and 4 fours.
The plan of sending Russell as an opener worked perfectly for the Gladiators as Russell gave them a flying start in the all-important Qualifier.
The second opener Cadmore also scored 23 runs off 16 balls.
The Gladiators lost some quick wickets after the dismissal of Russell.
Dominic Drakes was the star with the ball for Bulls, he picked up 3 wickets for just 15 runs from his 2 overs and he put his side back in the game due to his brilliant bowling.
Deccan Gladiators lost 4 quick wickets and the Bulls were looking to restrict them under 110 runs.
Wiese and Smith fiery partnership
Gladiators were 4 down on 77 runs in 6 overs and they needed a good end to the innings and that was provided by David Wiese and Odean Smith.
Both of them smashed the bowl hard in the last 4 overs and there was just raining of boundaries in Abu Dhabi from the bats of these two batters.
Wiese remained not out on 32 runs off just 15 balls while Smith also scored an unbeaten 30 off 11 balls including 2 fours and 3 sixes.
They set a total of 139 runs on the board.
Delhi Bulls failed to chase the target due to brilliant bowling by the Gladiators.
Delhi Bulls batters got good starts but none of them was able to convert their small knocks of 20s into match-winning 40s and 50s.
Hemraj was dismissed by Odean Smith in the 3rd over after scoring a fiery 24 runs off just 8 balls.
Rahmanullah Gurbaz was dismissed on 19 runs.
Morgan smashed 27 runs off just 8 balls but when he was just looking dangerous, he was dismissed by Russell.
Delhi Bulls only managed to score 122 runs off their 10 overs and they fell 15 runs shorter of the target.
Russell picked up 2 wickets while Smith, Hasaranga, and Mills picked up 1 wicket each.